10 Digital Marketing Strategies That Work

New to the world of digital marketing? Don’t fear. We have some basic advice to get you started on digital marketing strategies to employ that work. Before you jump in, brainstorm the goals and objectives for your digital marketing efforts, and then invest your time in the strategies that will help you accomplish those goals. Will email marketing put you in touch with your target market, or will influencer marketing be the better choice for you? Read on to learn (or get a refresher) about these effective digital marketing strategies.

Videos are the most effective type of content on social media platforms and other forms of publication. Publish videos to your feed that are optimized for both social media and for viewing on mobile devices. Share videos with your followers that cover popular topics as well as helpful topics. For example, are there educational videos about your products and/or services that you’d like to promote? Is there an industry event that you can cover and give your followers an insider look? Another trend in social media videos is to make the video watchable with or without audio (for users who don’t have headphones or need to stay quiet). That means including subtitles for any dialogue or major points in the video. Be sure to vary the content of your videos and post them to your social media accounts.

Interactive Posts

Similarly, like videos, interactive content performs well. Content that enables interaction and participation from users will stand out amongst the wide array of information that they encounter on social media. Interactive content is also more compelling and users are more likely to engage with it. Types of interactive content include quizzes, polls, surveys, live videos that users can comment on and react to, calculators, and contests or giveaways. Another strategy involves simply asking users to interact with your post. Ask them to comment, share, or like. Pose a question and ask users to share their opinions with you in the comments. This is becoming more commonplace and many users will be excited to join in the conversation.

Content Marketing

Content is king! In our current age of information, content is what gets audiences interested in you and your brand. As we’ll discuss in more depth later, users will interact with your content in different channels. If you publish a blog and post it to social media, you’re already doing content marketing. You’ll find that content plays a role in everything you do, from your website pages where potential customers find out more about who you are and what you do to the text on the images you post on social media. Other textual content that performs well includes infographics, interviews, how-to guides, and industry insight and news.

Social Media

Remember when only college students were on Facebook? Today is a different world in which many people check multiple social media accounts every day. Many brands post regularly to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. It’s becoming more commonplace for businesses to develop an online presence on Snapchat as well. Be sure to regularly post content to your social media accounts to get engagement and to reach your audience. Recently, brands have been making use of the messenger features on social media platforms. For example, you can use Facebook Messenger to send information to your followers about a promotion. And don’t forget, Messenger is where a lot of customer service happens.

We’re all used to getting hit with spam in our email inboxes, but when it’s done well, email marketing is an effective strategy for increasing web traffic, increasing sales, and developing relationships with your customers. You can use services like Mail Chimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, Emma, and others for creating and managing your email marketing campaigns. Target different segments of your target market with your email marketing campaigns. For example, segment out your email list into different categories. You can distinguish customers by new or current customers, location, those you haven’t visited your website in a while, etc. Keep your emails varied and compelling; share your news stories, blog posts, promotions and sales, and events. Always get someone’s permission before you add them to your email marketing list, and don’t email anyone who hasn’t opted into your newsletter.

If you have a post that is performing well, then you might decide to promote it through paid advertising on social media or on other platforms as well. Develop a budget and monitor how much you are spending as you promote your posts. Always review the analytics on how well your ads are performing. Having that information at hand will help you when you decide whether or not to tweak your strategy, which segments to target, and which types of ads are working best for you.

Apps

Developing an App is costly, but for some brands, it’s completely worth it. First of all, more people are using mobile than ever before, so having a platform on mobile devices where users can engage and interact with you is an amazing opportunity. Secondly, in addition to enhancing engagement with users through your app, the app also provides value to your audience. Thirdly, you can use an app in a variety of ways to promote your content and your products. Take iFood Assistant App as an example of a branded app, produced and offered by Kraft. Users download the app to access recipes, how-to guides, and shopping lists. The users benefit by having access to Kraft’s content, and Kraft benefits by the inherent advertising in the app. For example, the recipes include Kraft products, and users are encouraged to buy those products to make the recipe at home.

Virtual Reality

The emerging and quickly evolving technology of virtual reality opens doors and possibilities for marketers, especially those with products and/or services that have to be experienced to be understood. Industries like the real estate market leverage virtual reality to introduce potential customers to their offerings in a way that can never be accomplished through other types of communication. Walking through a virtual representation of a property, for instance, is incredibly more effective than simply talking on the phone and sending images of the property to prospective buyers. Virtual reality experiences immerse potential customers in your content and brings people closer to your product and/or services.

Influencer Marketing

A creative and exciting strategy for expanding your reach and widening your audience is to collaborate with an influencer in your area. Influencers are leaders in specific niches online who have large followings and clout with their audience. Brands often collaborate with influencers to promote their products and to expand their reach with the influencers’ audiences. Collaborations range between small collaborations, such as shout outs in a social media posts, and larger collaborations, such as entire blog posts or videos dedicated to reviewing your product and/or service. The example below is an influencer marketing collaboration between @robinvancrabb and the shoe brand Sperry on Instagram.

Photo Credit: httpss://www.instagram.com/sperry/?hl=en

Sperry collaborates with various micro-influencers in their space and shares photos on Instagram of influencers wearing their shoes. Through these posts, Sperry gets to publish quality content for their followers, gets their brand in front of the influencers’ followers, and inspires people on how to wear their shoes and pair their shoes with other items.

Channel Strategy

Marketing channels are different avenues where your target market interacts with your or learns about your offerings. Promoting your products on different channels makes your product available to more customers, especially because different segments will frequent and shop on different channels. For example, some people only purchase at retail stores, while other consumers like to shop around online. Channels may include your brand website, online retailers like Amazon, retail stores like Target or Walmart, social media platforms, etc. You may decide that focusing on one or two channels is where your efforts are best used. Alternatively, you may find that leveraging multiple channels is the most effective strategy for you and your company.

Square 1 Group is a boutique web development firm that designs and manages websites. Our clients receive individualized support for their websites, and we also offer content creation, lead generation, and other digital marketing strategies. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation.